CF

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This is the recipe if anyone fancies a go at making this delicious sweet

Serves 4 – Preparation 20mins – Cook 25 minutes

v  4 large egg whites

v  250g/9oz castor sugar

v  1 tsp. vanilla extract

v  1 tbsp. raspberry vinegar

v  115g/4oz shelled hazelnuts (leave a few for decoration)

v  300ml/10floz double cream

v  200g/7oz fresh raspberries

1.     Heat the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas mk3. Butter 4 individual moulds or a 20cm/8in sandwich tin and line with non- stick baking parchment.

2.     *Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar 1tpsp at a time and continue beating until the mixture is very stiff and stands in shiny peaks.*

3.     Whisk in the vanilla extract and vinegar, then, fold in the hazelnuts. Transfer to the tins and bake in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes or until lightly browned and holding its shape. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then transfer to serving a dish.

4.     Whip the cream and pile onto the centre of the meringue when it is completely cold. Place the raspberries on top of the cream and the outside edge of the meringue. Finely chop and sprinkle on the remaining hazel nuts.

*Secret Tip*

The trick to making successful meringues is to ensure that the consistency of the egg whites is correct. Dip your fingertips in the whites; when you remove them, the whites should hang down in the hooked shape of a bird’s beak.

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GF

Cassoulet is a hearty dish. Choose really meaty sausages and gammon, take the skin off the chicken and use a small amount of oil to reduce the calorie count.

Serves 6

I/2 tsp oil

6 good quality sausages (at least 85% meat)

4 celery sticks

3 medium carrots

2 medium onions chopped

6 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 450g)

2 garlic cloves

200g smoked or unsmoked lean gammon trimmed and cut into 2cm cubes

2 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes

150ml red wine (or water)

300ml cold water

1tsp caster sugar

1tsp dried chilli flakes

1 bay leaf

Fresh thyme

400g can of cannellini beans in water drained and rinsed

400g can of butter beans in water drained and rinsed

Freshly ground black pepper

Garnish scrubbed orange.

Handful of flat-leaf parsley

Finely grated zest of 1/2 well-scrubbed orange.

Method

Brush a large non-stick frying pan with the oil. Add sausages and cook over a medium heat for 10minutes, turning every now and then until nicely browned on all sides .Meanwhile, trim the celery and peel the carrots and cut them in diagonal slices about 1.5cm thick

Preheat the oven to 18degC/fan 160degC/gas4. Add the onions to pan and cook with the sausages for 6-8minutes, stirring regularly until softened and lightly brown.

Trim the chicken thighs for any visible fat, and then cut them in half. Add the garlic and chicken pieces to the pan with the sausages and onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning the chicken twice until coloured all over. Transfer everything to a large casserole dish

Stir the gammon, celery, carrots, tomatoes, red wine and water, then sprinkle over the caster sugar and chilli flakes. Stir in the bay leaf and thyme and season with lots of ground black pepper. Bring to a simmer on the hob, then cover with a lid and transfer to the oven. Cook for 45minutes.

Take the casserole out of the oven and stir in all the beans. Cover with the lid and put dish back in the oven for another 30min.

Just before it is ready, prepare the garnish. Chop the parsley roughly and toss with the orange zest. Serve large portions of the cassoulet in deep plates or wide bowls with a good sprinkling of the zesty parsley garnish on each one

JM

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Some of the group were thinking ahead and baked individual pies for freezing. Why didn’t I think of that!

The pies were baked for 30-35 minutes and everyone’s looked very impressive, if they were anything like mine they would have been very tasty too.

Click on any picture to enlarge.

The post Cooking up Chicken and Ham Tangle Pie. appeared first on Seaham Harbour U3A.

A favourite recipe was provided by Jean for our first attempt. We made Beef Lasagne.

After settling into new environment we were ready to try our skills at cooking. Some found the béchamel sauce a bit a tricky, but plenty of help was at hand, and everyone’s lasagne looked great as you can see.

Click on any picture to enlarge.

Emails confirmed that it tasted good too.

We all had a good time and are looking forward to many more classes.

All I can say is; look out Masterchef Seaham Harbour U3A is on its way.

The post Cookery Classes Begin appeared first on Seaham Harbour U3A.

Meeting on 23rd. February
On Monday 23rd February, 17 Members were at Houghton Kepier School for the second cookery lesson of this new Cookery Group. The dish of the day was to be Chicken Jalfrezi, it was prepared amongst much laughter and merriment and the aroma in the kitchen was wonderful.

We were even joined by the school’s head teacher, who also enjoyed herself cooking her tea.

We went round tasting each other curries and they all tasted great, but different considering we had all used the same list of ingredients.

I have always loved curry, there are such variations, from those that will blow your head off, to the ones you could feed to a small child.

I first became hooked on them when I was 15 years old and went to the Moti Mohal restaurant in Oxford for my first Indian meal.

George Fairweather

The recipe was supplied by Evelyn Cole, for those who would like to test it out please see below.

Chicken Jalfrezi

Ingredients

75g vegetable oil
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp chilli powder
3 tsp ground turmeric
Pinch of salt
750g chicken breasts
500g chopped tomatoes
2 tsp ground ginger
3 tsp ground cumin
3 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp melted butter
Juice of 1 lemon
To Serve

Basmati rice – cooked as directed
1 or 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
Handful of chopped coriander leaves
Preparation Method

Finely chop the onion and garlic. Chop the tomatoes up in to ½” chunks. Heat oil over a low/med heat and fry onion and garlic for 4-5 minutes or until softened.
Mix the chilli powder, turmeric and salt together in bowl until well combined. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces and then add to the spice mix, coat the chicken evenly. Add the mix to the pan and fry for a further 10-15 minutes until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
Stir in tomatoes, ginger, cumin and ground coriander, reduce heat until the mixture is just simmering. Cover pan with a lid and cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a tablespoon of water every so often if the mixture appears too dry.
Cook rice according to packet instructions.
Stir in melted butter and lemon juice to the curry mixture gradually to your taste,
To, serve spoon chicken jalfrezi onto plates. Serve with rice. Garnish with chopped coriander and chillies.

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The French group meet every other Tuesday at a member’s house at 10.30.am. We are a small group of 8 very personable ladies.

We are now approximately halfway through Breakthrough French Book 2, it is more challenging than Book 1 but we persevere, with coffee, biscuits, and lots of laughing to help us along.

In December 2014 we went for our Christmas Lunch to Café Rouge in Durham, the only French Restaurant we could find in our area. A good time was had by all and the meal was excellent.   I

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Seaham Harbour U3A entered the 2013 RITA competition.

RITA [Research Ideas from the Third Age] is a regional initiative overseen by Newcastle University. The purpose of RITA is to develop a research culture within U3A’s in collaboration with local universities. By ‘research culture’ we mean a broad lay awareness and understanding of the importance and excitement of research across all areas of knowledge – arts and humanities, as well as science, medicine and technology.

We were delighted to be awarded a prize of £250 as third place winners. The title of the submission: To examine and compare the provision of lifelong learning in the two European twinned towns of Seaham, United Kingdom and Gerlingen, Germany. The two towns have an historic link as they have similar sized populations and have been twinned for 25 years.

We now have to look towards developing our idea. To begin we will need to explore research techniques for identifying what is already in existence in the two towns to support lifelong learning. A comparison will be made between that which is on offer to third agers alongside opportunities for young people. The intention is to incorporate a cross generational theme throughout our research.

As a result of our success Seaham Harbour have a Research and Development Group comprising a small number of interested members [anyone else would be most welcome to join us]. Our first meeting is imminent to begin work on this exciting project.

Sandra Wilkinson.

Chair Person. Seaham Harbour U3A.

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The French group have almost reached double figures, and we are progressing slowly but surely, not quite fluent yet but we have a very good French Teacher who is helping us with our grammar and pronunciation.

We are now on the last unit of our Breakthrough French 1, book and CD’s so we are trying a little more conversational French

 We meet every other Tuesday at 10.30 am at a member’s home usually Carole’s. Just for something different we have watched a couple of French Films which we have enjoyed.

The post Introduction to the Basic French group appeared first on Seaham Harbour U3A.

There were some excellent workshops, demonstrations and stands, including art, crafts, wine-tasting, birdwatching, natural history, bridge, choir, essential oils, line dancing and many many more.

It was obvious that a lot of work had gone into the all-round organisation of the day and grateful thanks are due to the stalwarts from Seaham Harbour U3A who put together our presentation (accompanied by some wonderful sea shanties) and all its accoutrements, and manned the station all morning.

An excellent time was had by all from Seaham Harbour U3A who attended.

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